Fads

Please, only in my fantasies does reality television fade away into a distantly remembered fad. I suspect reality TV is here to stay. Heck, look at how long the sit com has lasted as a TV form.

Doodlebug said:

I'm thinking of writing a novel that centers around reality television, but my concern is that this fad will have long passed by the time the thing (ever) gets published and no one will want to touch it. (Course, they could not want to touch it for other reasons...)

What do you think? Is basing a novel on a fad like reality TV okay?

If this were a short story, I wouldn't worry, but a novel is a real commitment.

Click to expand...

If you wanted to be particular, reality television has existed since the fifties anyway. Remember "This is your life?"

I don't, but I've seen it on TV history shows.

*snerk*

Anyway, I'd just go ahead and write it. What difference would it make if Survivor was dead and Big Brother had faded into the sunset. Reality television could always make a comeback in some distant future fog and that makes it a viable concept from with which to build.

Good luck.

Be sure to watch the Dr. Who episode where badguys are running game shows where people die when they fail.

what Zoombie said, mostly because any excuse to watch Doctor Who should be grabbed at.


I think you're fine as long as you aren't talking about a particular real-life show as being the "current big thing," because that would date your work.

I might be running in on the tail end of this conversation, but I remember reading a novel by Clive Cussler in which a reality show plays a large part in one chapter (smallish overall, but still, the novel wouldn't have been the same without it). I forget how long ago it came out, but it seems publishers wouldn't outright disapprove of reality TV in a story. Of course, Cussler already has a good publishing record (or so I say off the top of my head, judging from the shelf and a half he takes up at my library ).